Chapter 12 Summary

Einstein spends the summer of 1931 in Berlin and then returns to Cal Tech that fall. When he returns to Berlin in the spring of 1932, he is alarmed by the election news. Back at Cal Tech, in January 1933, he learns that Germany's President Hindenberg has named Hitler Chancellor of Germany. Although less than one percent of Germany's population is Jewish, Hitler blames them for Germany's defeat in the First World War and its economic depression.

Einstein's academic enemies join in, decrying "Jewish physics." First, the university ranks are purged of Jewish professors who did not fight for Germany in World War I. Then purged are all who are Jewish, then all who have Jewish wives, and finally anyone who disagreed with the Nazis. Only a few intellectuals speak out. Planck eventually meets with Hitler to speak for his coworkers.